I don't know, Shields did grapplefuck Hendo for 5 rounds! He may not be as big as Sonnen but his wrestling is top notch as is his submission game. I would pick Silva but I wouldn't be massively confident about it.

i laughed a friend had posted a link to an article on sherdog and i looked in their forum they're writing jake shields off saying he has no wrestlingwas thinking to myself wonder if they watch anything thats outside the ufc

he dominated henderson for 4 rounds but not many people have done that fresh let alone after the first round that shields had he's never in pretty fights but he always makes people fight his fight his stand up is awful but he's so single minded about how the fights going to go its never made that much difference

Regardless of how he does against GSP, Shields style would cause major problems for A Silva. There really isn't any point in anyone trying to outstrike Anderson as there's no-one around at that level strikingwise, but as an excellent wrestler with a top notch submission game, Shields has the tools to make Anderson Silva look very mortal.

I also personally think that Shields is too big to be welterweight. He sometimes struggles with the cut and this is to his detriment as a fighter IMO. He'd be an even more dangerous fighter at middleweight.

I think Shields is an awesome talent, but i don't think he beats GSP OR Anderson, here's my logic...

His standup closely resembles that of someone at the end of their first boxing lesson ever, when they are totally gassed out, which has been recorded and then played back in slow motion lol ! i.e. its horrible!

He has amazing wrestling and an absolutely world class submission game, but against a really elite striker with good length/range, will struggle immensely to set up his takedowns.

His success against good strikers has predominently came against strikers who have one of fast hands, punching power or a long reach (good use of range). GSP and Anderson have all three, add to this that GSP has amazing wrestling and Anderson is not an easy guy to take down. I see Shields getting horribly smashed up whilst attempting to zombie walk his way in to takedowns agianst both of those two.

To play MMaths for a minute (as others have done so above) ...

Sonnen took Silva down repeatedly yes, but he explodes in to (and right through) his takedowns in a very different way to Shields who tends to vice grip and clinch his!

Josh Koscheck is a better wrestler than Shields and also a better striker, yet didn't come close to taking GSP down recently.

Shields beat Henderson who has very little timing and handspeed (although does have massive power) and Daley who used lots of kicks which resulted in him being taken down and then became so wary of being taken down it affected his standup.

Originally Posted by twitchboy

I also personally think that Shields is too big to be welterweight. He sometimes struggles with the cut and this is to his detriment as a fighter IMO. He'd be an even more dangerous fighter at middleweight.